The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-23
MRS. DALLAs'S DISAPPEARANCE.
She Is Supposed To Be Cared for in Hancock
County Farmers Family.


When the House committee took its mass OF
testimony relative to the trustees mismanage-
ment of the Insane Hospital, there was evil
Gence in regard to the singular disappearance OF
q patient Mrs. Ccrnelia E. Dallas. 1t was in
the nature of proof that attendants appointed
at the solicitation of the trustees purely on po-
ltical considerations were either neglectful or
incompetent. But the attendants. the Misses
Bowling, Immediately connected with this
case, could not be charged as failing because
they did not know how to care for patient.
Mrs. Dallas is the central figure Of a series OF
misfortInes that are largely favored with the
sensational, and her disappearance was the be-
ginning of an energetic and continuous search
for her on the part of Superintendent
Fletcher There is not q county COM
missioner or township trustee in the
State whom he has not addressed in this inter-
est. Responses came by the basketful that such
and such woman in this or that locality might
be the one he wanted. It did not matter as to
description The lost women coming under their
notice were fair or dark, unattractive or pre-
possessing, tall or short as it suited the wishes
Of the writer's. They represented all degrees OF
mental affection from helpless idiocy to mani
acal paroxysms. But among them all DR..
Fletcher could not find Mrs. Dallas. The
search extended to nearly every State in the
Union, and recently conferred around Brooklyn.
N. Y. There was enough in the letters coming
from that city to encourage a probability that
the woman was there, and yet the Superln-
tendent had his doubts Some particulars
agreed with the incidents of the disappearance
of Mrs. Dallas, which occurred at noon on Sept.
%, 1885.
She had been out walking with the attendants,
the Misses Bowling, and directly after their re-
turn to the hospital she was missed. Every
NOOK and corner of the building underwent care
full inspection. cisterns were sounded and places
inviting to people of suicidal tendencies visited
and the neighborhood travelled over and over.
Not clew bad the woman left behind, nor did
the attendants tell any more than that they
were with her but few minutes before the dis
appearance was made known. Mrs. Dallas's
former acts suggested suicide, and yet it seemed
improbable for one to escape her guards so
quickly without leaving some evidence that
would lead to discovery, whether in long or short
time. She had been in the hospital since 1879
and though generally quiet, when annoyed she
became violent Previous to DR.. Fletcher's
superintendency she escaped from the hos
pita and after three months search was
found in Hamilton county. 1t became a habit
OF her to try to get away, and this caused the
superintendent to have her watched the more
keenly. Being a lady of more than ordinary
accomplishments Sno was given Ill means OIL
amusements that her desires would suggest
| Skillful with pencil she provided by Mrs
Fletcher with black board, and for hours she
| would entertain herself drawing home scenes
| They pertaned to the farm life from W hich she
came. With the needle and scissors she was an
| adept. and these means in her better moments
| gave her much employment. But witha at
the hospital no history of her case could be
| found, except that she came from Lagrange
county, where her husband still lives
| the of General Assem- V.
| recently adjourned, Senator Drake, of Lagrange,
| introduced resolution calling for an investi-
CATION OF Mrs. Dallas's disappearance. 1t was
| referred to the Senate committee on benevolent
institutions, which did not take the trouble to
| report thereon although some weeks later the
| Senator asked what had become of it. He was
| simply told that the resolution would be consid-
| ered but it remained on the committees files
| without action. When the neglect of the two
attendants in this instance was so apparent. Su-
perintendent Fletcher discharged them.
| One of the ladies is connected
| with an institution in Louisiana,
| DR.. Fletcher recently received letter asking
| for recommendation to character and
| efficiency. He proposed to give her all the help
| he could, if she would only tell how Mrs Dallas
| disappeared from the hospital. This she either
| could not, or was unwilling to do for he has
| not heard from her since The Senate maj ority
| did not evince any desire to have the case in
vestigated, and no formal cognzance of it was
| quiries.
| Since then no developments attended the
search for the woman until a letter, addressed te
, the journal. came yesterday from Oliver H
Armstrong, who lives five and half miles from
| Greenfield He read in this paper of Feb. % the
testimony OF the missing woman husband be
fore the House committee and wrote that in thu
fall of 1885, at a straw stack on a farm in Sugar
| Creek township, Hancock county, q strang,
| woman was found She had been in that 10
cality two or three weeks. At the farmer.
house she occasionally got food, with which sh
would return to the stack.
"She was supposed to be tramp" the lette
continued, ''untii 1t was discovered that sh
was insane, when the farmer gave her
home She has never. in any of her converse
ton, given clews to where she is from, or any
thing concerning people relatives and tn
only thing that can be learned from her is tina
her name is Eliza Dallas She is good sewer
and can cut and fit almost any garment as goo
as the most of the women. She is rather Ia
and slender, and her hair is very black an
curly"
When this information was sent to Dr. Fletch
er he hadsabout FIVE minutes before completed
letter to Dr. Shaw, of the Flatbush Long Islam
Insane Hospital, in regard to the woman in tia
locality who is supposed to be Mrs. Dallas. II
thinks there is some chance of the Hancoc
county woman being the one for whom he ha
had such long search and will investigate tn
matter.
ADJUSTMENTS.
GRAND oPERA-HOUsE-'THE CHoUANs'
"The Chouaus," an adaptation Of Balzac